After the killings of thousands of poor suspects, including innocent teenagers, without due process of law and in violation of basic human rights, President Rodrigo Duterte and some of his servile followers, including his daughter, are now engaged in further acts against democracy and utter disregard of time-honored democratic practices.

Mr. Duterte seems to be oozing with a personal desire to rule absolutely as a dictator by any invented reason or reasons in the absence of justifiable and constitutional reasons.

Perhaps, hoping that in so doing, he could be saved from accountability for the deaths of his own people under his watch.

He even accused the CIA of working with certain Filipino groups “to destabilize” his administration, which, prompted U.S. ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim to publicly deny the charge.

The charge prompted a netizen to post the following in Facebook, “No plot needed to oust Duterte. Don’t disturb Duterte. He is doing a great job ousting himself.”

Mr. Duterte, of late, has been injecting new and weird stories in an apparent attempt to remold the public perception on extrajudicial killings or extra summary executions that had been taking place around the PH for the last 16 months since he took over the presidency.

Recently, the Chief Executive and his minions announced there was only one extrajudicial killing in the Philippines since June 30, 2016!

This was a big LOL to citizens and netizens alike.

He is now talking of a “twist” in the killing of young Kian Loyd delos Santos, which, swayed the consciousness of the Filipino people that EJKs are criminal and despicable acts and should stop.

Mr. Duterte tried to erase the sympathy of the world community to the widely-publicized “Pieta,” picture of a woman embracing the dead body of her partner after being shot in connection with Duterte’s brutal anti-drug campaign by saying now that the shooters were drug syndicate members.

(Photo by Raffy Lerma for INQUIRER)

We are reminded of a quote from Abraham Lincoln, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

The President’s daughter, Sara Duterte, organized a movement calling for unity among Filipinos.

Many netizens, however, believe it is her father who has been the number one polarizing agent in the country and that the movement is just another “gimmick” by the Dutertes to divert away from the serious issues of hidden wealth and smuggling of illegal drugs that the family are being accused of.

It is apparent, Mr. Duterte and his ilk, are determined to take out the legitimate opposition by any means, including sending them to jail even on manufactured charges like Sen. Leila de Lima.

We would say President Duterte is building a bridge of defense leading to nowhere.

Many of his own people do not believe the words of this president anymore.

He is, in fact, referred to in the Internet as “The Lying King.”

The legitimate opposition groups have united against Duterte.

While he continues to defend the remaining (after the resignations of some) Duterte loyalists around him no matter what they do and what comes out of their mouths.

Mr. Duterte might as well be reminded of two things:

1) it is the first order in a democracy to distrust its leader who believes his own trolls; and